Should we be worried about our ageing squad?

ws01 said:
I may have made one or two mistakes, but I'm pretty sure I've got most of them right. My post states how old players will be or will be turning at the end of the season (i.e next year, 2015). If they haven't yet had their birthday then I've simply used the age they will be turning, just to be consistent. Aguero will indeed be turning 27 next year, Jovetic 26, Kompany 29 etc.

Hope that clears up any confusion.
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It would avoid confusion if you edited the OP and put everyone's correct ages now in there - not what they will be at some time in the future. Otherwise it's an interesting and thought provoking post. Like many of the other replies so far I have every confidence our leadership know what they are doing and will have this covered, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good point to raise.
 
Maybe SOME of recent long term contract extensions will affect average age in due course. Of course these extensions for indispensable players (eg Silva) are totally justifiable.
 
Didn't we have the same thread a few days ago?

Anyway, the great thing about having an already fantastic squad is that it now becomes merely a case of maintaining it, which is much cheaper than putting it together in the first place. You can play the long game and buy someone like Jovetic for £22m rather than spunking £50m or £60m on Cavani or Falcao. The other thing I've noticed is that the top teams seem to get a lot more money for their rejects. We bought Garcia for £15.8m. He did a job, but ultimately it was obvious that he wasn't going to be part of a world class midfield and we recouped £13m for him. So either we get a player that becomes world class (Zabaleta, Kompany, etc), or we have a player that does a job for a while but still has value when it's obvious he's not the solution. If you're also buying from a position of strength, you can wait until the right player comes along at the right price, rather than having to buy any player at any price. You can afford to wait for the likes of Van Persie or Lewandowski to get into the last year of their contracts, or Real Madrid to get bored of their latest toy and pick them up on the cheap. Look at Reus next season, for example. The rags of a few seasons ago would no doubt have been interested in him, but because they let their squad get into a dire state, they absolutely had to have a world class player now, and ended up buying someone for 3 times the price.

And there's the little fact that if all of the above still doesn't work out, we're still not beyond spending shitloads of money on a world class player if needs must.
 
ws01 said:
Looking through the various teams in the prem, it looks as if we're now the second oldest squad with an average age of 28.4 years, behind only QPR at 28.6 years. What I'm concerned about is that we end up with situation where we haven't taken a proper phased approach to squad rejuvenation, leaving heaps of oldies a) starting to wear out and decrease in physical ability b) needing to be replaced all at once and c) having little on-sell value to generate revenue to re-invest. Point B comes with the problem of FFP, we can go splurging huge wads of cash all in one go anymore.

So far we've sold Rodwell (23) and Garcia (27). We're further expecting to sell Nastasic (21), Richards (26), Sinclair (25) and Guidetti (22) - all players younger than our average. This of course is going to increase the age of the squad and without calculating it could become the oldest. Going through the squad in detail showing how old players will be/will be turning at the end of the season.

GK: Hart (28), Caballero (34), Wright (38) - Being a keeper Hart has plenty of years left in him at the top. Caballero we can get 2-3 more out of. Dickie Wright will probably need replacing soon by another English cheapie. Not a great area for concern IMO as Hart is still quite young

Centre Halves: Kompany (29), Mangala (24), Demichelis (35), Boyata (25), Nastasic* (22), Rekik* (21) - Vinnie will likely see out his career here, so there's probably another 3-4 years at least in him. MDM will definitely need replacing soon, unless we can squeeze another year out him. Pressure's on Rekik to be able to step up to the plate next season given Pellers rates him and Nastasic is on the outer - there are doubts about him atm.

Fullbacks: Zabaleta (30), Sagna (32), Clichy (30), Kolarov (30), Richards* (27) - An area for concern IMO as all are 30 or above next year. Like Vin Zaba will probably see his career out here, so he's got another 3-4 at least. Would've prefered someone younger than Sagna to play back up to him given his age. We'll need 1 quality younger player on either side to come in soonish.

Midfield: Fernando (28), Fernandinho (30), Y Toure (32), Milner (29), Navas (30), Sinclair* (26), Lampard (37), Silva (29), Nasri (28), Huws* (22), Zuculini* (22), Lopes* (20) - Another slight area for concern with not one player 25 or under in the current squad. Fernandinho & Navas were good short term buys but weren't designed for longevity. Do we cash in on Yaya while he's still got decent value or do we want him to play out his days here? Lampard won't be here next season of course. 1-2 of Huws, Zuculini and Lopes really need to make it.

Forwards: Aguero (27), Jovetic (26), Dzeko (29), Negredo (30), Guidetti* (23) - Key players in Aguero and Jovetic have plenty left in them. With Dzeko being signed long term I'd make the tough decision of selling The Beast, with either a WC goal scoring winger replacing him or promoting one of our EDS players. Not a huge cause for concern.

To cut it a bit shorter, we really need to have 3-4 of the youth players step up and be able to cement their places in the squad. Majority of short-medium term players purchases from the outside would ideally be with the player 25-26 or younger, as we have would have next to no players in this bracket next year from the current playing squad.

How would you go about it? Who would you sell, keep, promote, buy etc? Do we let players run down their contracts or do we start cashing in? Interested to know how others see the process of squad rejuvenation happening. Without panicking I do thinking planning needs to be well ahead and tough decisions need to be made soon for the continued success of the first team. We really need a young core bunch playing together to maintain that culture, style of play, leadership and "ethos" (wank term I know).
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This thread.....again!?

Dearie me!
 
ws01 said:
Looking through the various teams in the prem, it looks as if we're now the second oldest squad with an average age of 28.4 years, behind only QPR at 28.6 years. What I'm concerned about is that we end up with situation where we haven't taken a proper phased approach to squad rejuvenation, leaving heaps of oldies a) starting to wear out and decrease in physical ability b) needing to be replaced all at once and c) having little on-sell value to generate revenue to re-invest. Point B comes with the problem of FFP, we can go splurging huge wads of cash all in one go anymore.

So far we've sold Rodwell (23) and Garcia (27). We're further expecting to sell Nastasic (21), Richards (26), Sinclair (25) and Guidetti (22) - all players younger than our average. This of course is going to increase the age of the squad and without calculating it could become the oldest. Going through the squad in detail showing how old players will be/will be turning at the end of the season.

GK: Hart (28), Caballero (34), Wright (38) - Being a keeper Hart has plenty of years left in him at the top. Caballero we can get 2-3 more out of. Dickie Wright will probably need replacing soon by another English cheapie. Not a great area for concern IMO as Hart is still quite young

Centre Halves: Kompany (29), Mangala (24), Demichelis (35), Boyata (25), Nastasic* (22), Rekik* (21) - Vinnie will likely see out his career here, so there's probably another 3-4 years at least in him. MDM will definitely need replacing soon, unless we can squeeze another year out him. Pressure's on Rekik to be able to step up to the plate next season given Pellers rates him and Nastasic is on the outer - there are doubts about him atm.

Fullbacks: Zabaleta (30), Sagna (32), Clichy (30), Kolarov (30), Richards* (27) - An area for concern IMO as all are 30 or above next year. Like Vin Zaba will probably see his career out here, so he's got another 3-4 at least. Would've prefered someone younger than Sagna to play back up to him given his age. We'll need 1 quality younger player on either side to come in soonish.

Midfield: Fernando (28), Fernandinho (30), Y Toure (32), Milner (29), Navas (30), Sinclair* (26), Lampard (37), Silva (29), Nasri (28), Huws* (22), Zuculini* (22), Lopes* (20) - Another slight area for concern with not one player 25 or under in the current squad. Fernandinho & Navas were good short term buys but weren't designed for longevity. Do we cash in on Yaya while he's still got decent value or do we want him to play out his days here? Lampard won't be here next season of course. 1-2 of Huws, Zuculini and Lopes really need to make it.

Forwards: Aguero (27), Jovetic (26), Dzeko (29), Negredo (30), Guidetti* (23) - Key players in Aguero and Jovetic have plenty left in them. With Dzeko being signed long term I'd make the tough decision of selling The Beast, with either a WC goal scoring winger replacing him or promoting one of our EDS players. Not a huge cause for concern.

To cut it a bit shorter, we really need to have 3-4 of the youth players step up and be able to cement their places in the squad. Majority of short-medium term players purchases from the outside would ideally be with the player 25-26 or younger, as we have would have next to no players in this bracket next year from the current playing squad.

How would you go about it? Who would you sell, keep, promote, buy etc? Do we let players run down their contracts or do we start cashing in? Interested to know how others see the process of squad rejuvenation happening. Without panicking I do thinking planning needs to be well ahead and tough decisions need to be made soon for the continued success of the first team. We really need a young core bunch playing together to maintain that culture, style of play, leadership and "ethos" (wank term I know).
Click to expand...
Why are you adding 2 years to half the players?

Demichelis is 33, Boyata 23, Rekik 19, Emyr Huws is 20, Lopes 18 and Jovetic 24.
 
No worries ... Nacho for the Beast,
Huws, Zuculini, and Lopes all look very good
The kid we loaned to Celtic looks like a good future first team player as well
 
Our squad isn't old.

As long as we have a recruitment / replacement plan in place, we should not be worried. Given who we having managing the club and the job that they are doing, we have no reason to believe that we have the right strategy in place.
 
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